The Alliance of Latino and Latin American Students (ALAS) and the Urban Planning Student Association (UPSA) at NYU Wagner present a lively conversation with Urban and International Planning Professor Clara Irazábal from Columbia University, as we open a dialogue about ethnic placemaking, how the next population majorities will shape the urban fabric in the US, and the role of politics of culture in urban planning. The Event will provide a space for participants to discuss the importance of place-making to the urban planning profession, with examples from Latin America and the Caribbean. Followed by a special musical performance by NYU student and Quatrista Mario Cancel.

**Refreshments will be provided**

About the Speaker:
Clara Irazábal, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Urban Planning in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. She received a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and has two Masters in Architecture and Urban Design and Planning from the UC Berkeley and the Universidad Central de Venezuela, respectively. Irazábal has worked as consultant, researcher, and/or professor in Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Germany, Spain, Vietnam, and the US; and has lectured in many other countries.

Irazábal situates her scholarship at the intersection of planning and urban design as fields of practice, and urban/cultural and Latino/Latin American studies as a mode of inquiry. Her work is concerned with exploring the politics of cultures and the cultures of politics of urban design and planning processes and practices, often in comparative terms. Thus, she explores the interaction of culture, politics, and placemaking. Irazábal is especially interested in uncovering the dialectic tensions among issues of power, knowledge, and subjectivities as they relate to space: the cultural politics of placemaking. She primarily focuses on Latin American cities and Latino communities in the US.